I'm on President Obama's mailing list. In the last couple weeks, I've received multiple e-mails from his "grassroots" organization, Obama For America (which is really just the Democratic National Committee. There's nothing grassroots about it). These e-mails are about health care reform, and they are always the same. They state that Obama's health care plan is designed to reduce costs, improve health care quality, and provide universal health care coverage. Obama For America/DNC then asks me to e-mail my Congresspersons, voicing my support for the health care plan, and OBA/DNC also asks for a donation. OBA/DNC informs me Congress is hard at work formulating a plan for health care (which actually means it isn't OBAMA'S health care plan at all. It's Congress' health care plan).

Only politicians are ever this brazen. Think about what OBA/DNC is asking me to do. They are asking me to support a health care plan that has not yet been designed. They are asking me to support a health care plan without providing any substantive details about the plan whatsoever. The only details they do provide are regarding electronic recordkeeping and preventitive care. Sorry, OBA/DNC, that isn't much of an answer. They say the plan will "reduce costs," and by that they mean it will cost a bundle (there was a $634 billion "down payment" in deficit spending already budgeted for Obama's health care plan). They provide no details about how the health care plan will be paid for.

There's something about the notion of liberal judges versus conservative judges that has always bothered me. I was taught that justice is blind, which means justice should be neither liberal nor conservative. Justice should be neutral on political matters. Justice should apply the law. When politicians like President Obama start saying they want judges with empathy for certain groups of people, we are being led astray. I know I wouldn't want to stand in front of a judge with empathy for groups A and B if I was a member of group C. In such a scenario, I'm pretty sure that justice is not what I would get. In such a scenario, a kangaroo court is much more likely. I don't want a judge who is a liberal activist or a conservative activist. I don't want a judge who is trying to fix all the problems of society. That is not the role of a judge.

The House Energy And Commerce Committee has approved the American Clean Energy And Security Act of 2009 (cap and trade). Although no members of the committee actually read the nearly 1,000 page bill, the House did employ a speed reader for a day to read part of the bill aloud (think Pittsburgh Pete), which didn't help inform Congress at all, but did provide some excellent material for all the late night talk show comedians.

The aim of the bill, also known as the Waxman-Markey bill, is to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from automobiles, coal plants, and factories by 83% over the next 40 years. Here's the bill's primary sponsor, Representative Henry "Clueless" Waxman (D-CA), explaining what is in the bill when he was asked the other day:

“The bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is before them, glory and danger alike, and yet notwithstanding, go out to meet it.” - Thucydides

Memorial Day (formerly called Decoration Day) honors U.S. soldiers who died in military service for their country. It was first enacted to honor the fallen Union soldiers of the Civil War, and was expanded following World War I to include all fallen soldiers.

President Obama and former Vice President Dick Cheney both gave speeches about national security on thursday. Obama was critical of the Bush administration's policies, and Cheney was critical of Obama's policies while defending the Bush era actions. There's nothing wrong with that. People can differ over important issues, and national security is about as important as it gets. Here is a transcript of Obama's speech. Here is a transcript of Cheney's speech. They are both interesting reading, and when stood side by side outline seemingly stark policy differences. I think a fair assessment of the two men's differing positions regarding the terrorist threat could be summarized as follows - Obama says "let's adhere to our values as we fight terrorism," and Cheney says "let's do whatever it takes to defeat terrorism."

Which of the two men is right, or whether both of them are partially right depends on your viewpoint and priorities, I guess, but I found many of Obama's statements contradictory. For instance, Obama talks about how imprisoning detainees indefinitely at Guantanomo Bay makes us less safe, goes against our values, and violates the rule of law, but his own administration is arguing that detainees may be imprisoned at Bagram Air Force base in Afghanistan indefinitely without contesting their detainment. The Obama administration is arguing against a U.S. court ruling on this matter. The court ruled that the detainees must be granted habeas corpus, and the Obama administration is arguing otherwise. The Obamans are arguing that U.S federal court has no jurisdiction over the Bagram detainees, directly in opposition to Obama's stated opinion about Guantanomo Bay detainees. If keeping prisoners in Gitmo makes us less safe, goes against our values, and violates the rule of law......doesn't the same hold true in Bagram ? Not to mention that Obama's own Gitmo closing strategy includes one option to keep dangerous terrorists who could not otherwise be prosecuted in prison. From Obama's speech:

The biggest reason Nancy Pelosi's lies matter is - she's third in line to be the President of the United States. If President Obama were to become unable to serve, Vice President and Gaffemaster General Joe Biden would succeed him. After Biden, the job falls to the Speaker of the House, and that's Pelosi. After Pelosi, it goes to the President pro tempore of the Senate, 91-year old former Klansman Robert Byrd. Following Byrd is the Secretary of State, Hillary Rodham Clinton.

An Obama clone or impersonator held a townhall meeting in Albuquerque, New Mexico a couple days ago and pretended to be the actual President Of The United States. The man was clearly an impostor, because listen to what he said. From Bloomberg News:

In my last post, I touched on the problem of our huge unfunded entitlement liabilities, primarily Social Security and Medicare. Yesterday, the Obama administration admitted the problem exists. Yippee ! This may not seem like such a big step forward, but it is. Remember, for years the Democrats in Congress denied there was any problem whatsoever. They kept saying SS and Medicare were in fine shape for decades. Little to worry about. As Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said in 2005:

At the end of each fiscal year, the Treasury Department issues a financial report. The last such report was the 2008 Financial Report Of the United States Government. There is a link to the Citizens Guide version of the report here.

The stated 2008 deficit under President Bush was $454.8 billion. That was the largest budget deficit in American history in dollars, though President Obama's first year deficit of $1.8 trillion makes the 2008 deficit look like chump change by comparison. Every other projected Obama deficit over the next 10 years will also be larger than the 2008 largest deficit in history. Yet somehow, Obama's popularity ratings are still high. Go figure. Maybe bankruptcy is the new fiscal responsibility. I don't know. I don't get it.

"Every one of us can imagine the following scenario: We get lucky; we get the No. 3 guy in al-Qaida, and we know there's a big bomb going off in America in three days and this guy knows where it is. We have the right and the responsibility to beat it out of him." -- former President Bill Clinton, September 2006.

We now know that such a statement makes Bill Clinton an international criminal, worse than Hitler. There's no room in new American "soft power" for people like Bill Clinton these days. Bubba was all about hard power, with an emphasis on the word "hard," to which a certain White House intern (and many others) can attest. But that's a different story.

"Liberals are always proposing perfectly insane ideas, laws that will make everybody happy, laws that will make everything right, make us live forever, and all be rich. Conservatives are never that stupid." - P. J. O'Rourke

Following are some news stories our esteemed mainstream media just can't manage to find time for, at least not when such pressing issues as whether or not Miss California, Carrie Prejean, has had a boob job are still under investigation. Prejean, the 21-year old liberal hate media target of the week, also had some racy Victoria's Secret modeling photos taken of her when she was 17, so it's perfectly understandable why the media missed the following stories. I imagine they are too busy working up a full-scale profile on the hypocrisy of the entire Christian movement after Miss California had the audacity to politely say she thought marriage should be between a man and a woman. Prejean is obviously worse than Hitler, and must be destroyed, along with that Sarah woman from Alaska. Those b's (or are they c's ?) better zip it, and go bake some cookies. This is the hope and change era, dammit. We can't have these dames going around offering their pretty little opinions, even when asked for them at a Miss USA pageant or a national Vice Presidential debate. It's not like they didn't know what they were SUPPOSED to say. If we don't put these gals in their place, before you know it, women will be running around giving all kinds of opinions about stuff, and not the always the RIGHT ones either. Who wants THAT kind of country ?

Last friday's Glenn Beck show was a townhall meeting with several Tea Party protesters. Needless to say, I found myself agreeing with much of the sentiment expressed. Two main themes were repeated by several of the Tea Partiers - 1) The mainstream media completely misrepresented the Tea Party protests (no doubt about that), and 2) The two party system is broken. The Tea Partiers looked at both Democrats and Republicans as betrayers of the public, and betrayers of the Constitution (the media ludicrously portrayed this sentiment as 'rightwing extremist racists against Obama for no good reason').